STJ Preview for October!

Eeek!  It's almost that time! 

My October offering for Spookytime Jingles is a Fright Night Special with a vampire that's got a few bats to peddle. 

And I've spiffied up Septembers' Pixie and transformed him into Santa, the Little Helper.

Hope you like them!  See you there!

So I realize I 've been severely neglecting my blog.  I can only say in my defense that summertime finds me outdoors a good deal of the time.  I'm not overly bothered by the heat & when I am I simply retreat into the air conditioning.  I am one of those die-hard cold weather haters and wonder every winter what we are still doing in Pennsylvania.  And of course, as it starts to cool down it's time to kick into high gear creating more art for the Halloween season.

Some of the things that kept me busy this summer were the rebuilding of my pond by ripping out the stream bed and building a real waterfall mound.  I also built a gate for our deck to keep the dog around.  I DO miss my old Jack Russells, Rocco and Pippi who could be let out onto their ungated deck that leads into our unfenced yard & I could trust them to do their business and return in due time.  Willow, just over a year old, tends to be more like the traditional Jack Russell with way too much prey-chasing instinct so unless bound by fence or leash would take off  into the wild blue yonder chasing rabbits and squirrels.  Before I built the gate we used a pain-in-the-butt baby gate & once or twice forgot that it was not in place before leaving Willow onto the deck.  He ran to another block in our development & stole the ball a grandmother was tossing to her grandson.  I'm sure Willow thought he'd won a grand prize by thieving that ball and bringing it back to our house.  Thankfully the grandma-grandson duo thought it was 'cute'.  Regardless, we now have a gate that swings and latches -Yay!

I also built a ladder for our new shed.  We (finally!) bought a new barn-style shed with overhead storage on either side so I made a ladder that can be moved back & forth.  Hubby asked why not just use the step ladder?  To me that would mean that is where the step ladder would have to be stored & not in the attached garage where it is now & we can conveniently retrieve it for use around the house. The ladder is not perfect but it will do the job.

He has finally begun to work on changing our electrical service from 100 amps to 200 so that should allow him to finish the room that is SUPPOSED to become my art studio. Then I can vacate the spare bedroom/computer room and make it into an actual bedroom for the grandkids's sleepovers.  I've got my second on the way & due in February!

And as usual, aside from my day job I've been busy creating art.  I've been redoing some of my unsolds and offering them on eBay.  I just don't have the room to store them so it's either sell them at bargain basement prices or redo them & try to make them more appealing.  Here is my current redo, a little witch - I've repositioned her eyes and traded her cat for a pumpkin.


 Li'l Witch on eBay

Bootique Offering - Double Trouble!

Blogspot is giving the administrator of the Castle Bootique fits this month & so she is having trouble posting July's offerings so I will offer a view of Ed & Ned Dread here, two brothers who are as close as two brothers can be!  It's picture day at Ghoulie School & they are excited & grinning like fools.

7" high x 7" wide

 

Boney Bobber WIP aka Mays Bootique Offering

May first @ noon this guy goes up for sale at the Queens Bootique...

ARGH Matey!

Here's a Boo teaser for the imminent update on the Queens Marketplace! He's a pirate skelly ornamant who's passed on of scurvy about 250 years ago.  He's about 10" high with the hanger.  He's got a gold tooth, an eyepatch and breath like death.  Jack Sparrow he ain't, but he's still pretty gnarly!

ULALUME: A BALLAD

I heard this Jeff Buckley version on XM Radio today (on the Loft's Vin Scelsa's Idiots Circus)and he reads it with haunting perfection (click at the bottom to hear it yourself)...

by Edgar Allan Poe -1847

ULALUME: A BALLAD.
——

The skies they were ashen and sober; 
    The leaves they were crisped and sere — 
    The leaves they were withering and sere; 
It was night in the lonesome October 
    Of my most immemorial year; 
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber, 
    In the misty mid region of Weir — 
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber, 
    In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

Here once, through an alley Titanic, 
    Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul — 
    Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul. 
These were days when my heart was volcanic 
    As the scoriac rivers that roll — 
    As the lavas that restlessly roll 
Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek 
    In the ultimate climes of the pole — 
That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek 
    In the realms of the boreal pole.

Our talk had been serious and sober,
    But our thoughts they were palsied and sere —
    Our memories were treacherous and sere —
For we knew not the month was October,
    And we marked not the night of the year —
    (Ah, night of all nights in the year!)
We noted not the dim lake of Auber —
    (Though once we had journeyed down here) —
We remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,
    Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

And now, as the night was senescent
    And star-dials pointed to morn —
    As the star-dials hinted of morn —
At the end of our path a liquescent
    And nebulous lustre was born.
Out of which a miraculous crescent
    Arose with a duplicate horn —
Astarte's bediamonded crescent
    Distinct with its duplicate horn.

And I said — "She is warmer than Dian:
    She rolls through an ether of sighs —
    She revels in a region of sighs:
She has seen that the tears are not dry on
    These cheeks, where the worm never dies,
And has come past the stars of the Lion
    To point us the path to the skies —
    To the Lethean peace of the skies —
Come up, in despite of the Lion,
    To shine on us with her bright eyes —
Come up through the lair of the Lion,
    With Love in her luminous eyes."

But Psyche, uplifting her finger,
    Said — "Sadly this star I mistrust —
    Her pallor I strangely mistrust: —
Oh, hasten! — oh, let us not linger!
    Oh, fly! — let us fly! — for we must."
In terror she spoke, letting sink her
    Wings till they trailed in the dust —
In agony sobbed, letting sink her
    Plumes till they trailed in the dust —
    Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.

I replied — "This is nothing but dreaming :
    Let us on by this tremulous light !
    Let us bathe in this crystalline light !
Its Sybilic splendor is beaming
    With Hope and in Beauty to-night: —
    See! — it flickers up the sky through the night !
Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,
    And be sure it will lead us aright —
We safely may trust to a gleaming
    That cannot but guide us aright,
    Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night."

Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,
    And tempted her out of her gloom —
    And conquered her scruples and gloom;
And we passed to the end of the vista,
    And were stopped by the door of a tomb —
    By the door of a legended tomb;
And I said — "What is written, sweet sister,
    On the door of this legended tomb?"
She replied — "Ulalume — Ulalume —
'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!"

Then my heart it grew ashen and sober
    As the leaves that were crisped and sere —
    As the leaves that were withering and sere,
And I cried — "It was surely October
    On this very night of last year
    That I journeyed — I journeyed down here —
    That I brought a dread burden down here —
    On this night of all nights in the year,
    Oh, what demon has tempted me here?
Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber —
    This misty mid region of Weir —
Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,
    In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir."

Said we, then — the two, then —" Ah, can it
    Have been that the woodlandish ghouls —
    The pitiful, the merciful ghouls —
To bar up our way and to ban it
    From the secret that lies in these wolds —
    From the thing that lies hidden in these wolds —
Had drawn up the spectre of a planet
    From the limbo of lunary souls —
This sinfully scintillant planet
    From the Hell of the planetary souls ?"

Cat 'n Mouse

Almost done with this one. She's been invited to a party and has brought a gift for the host:-D.



I've got a few more of these wide (apart) eyed characters up my sleeve.

I dunno...I better be careful, I'm going all cute & gooey.

Humpty's Fall from the Wall

Since I have all these international viewers who are looking at the January 09 post searching for humpty's fall, I thought I'd take advantage of that and post pics of another Humpty I made a few years ago. This Humpty is in the process of falling as he is a bobber or nodder of a sort. He was sculpted on a styrofoam egg with wired arms and legs and glass eyes. He was mounted on the edge of the wall via a spring so that if touched he 'teeters' on the edge as if he is about to fall. He was so much fun to make, perhaps I'll try another!

Josie

Zoie is ...One Twisted Kitteh

Ahhhh...the flexibility of youth!

Alfie the Elfie

Just a quickie post...

Yay! He's done. Now with his wool hat he stands over 13" high. Now on to the next project!